Estate Office (Bear Cottage), Traquair House

Circa 1749 for Charles Stuart, 5th Earl of Traquair (11th Laird). Single storey, 4-bay, rectangular-plan vernacular estate cottage with rustic timber gabled porch and attached square-plan outbuilding (possible piend-roofed former store/byre) sited to right. Random whinstone rubble, harled and painted to principal elevation of cottage, some whitewashing and roughcasting to rear. Thin stone sills to principal elevation, later window dressings to rear.

NW (PRINCIPAL) ELEVATION: to left and centre, single storey, 4-bay former cottage (now estate office): entrance to 2nd bay comprising open timber rustic gabled porch with rough logs supporting corners and sides in-filled to below half-height with weather-board, upper section with diagonal timber in-fill (see NOTES) and later timber door; regularly placed window to bays 1 and 3 with smaller widow to 4th bay. Adjoining to right, blind rear of 1?-storey former store with lower wall continuing to SW and forming open courtyard entrance with wall of tea room.

SW ELEVATION: blind end of 1?-storey store with stone bear finial to apex of roof.

SE (REAR) ELEVATION: to centre, slightly advanced rear of original cottage with entrance door to left and much later tripartite window to right; small window on narrow left return. Square-plan 1?-storey building attached to rest of left return (probably former store with door to ground floor centre and hayloft entrance to ?-storey) now in-filled, re-pointed and altered with central window. To right of cottage, (later) projecting gable with centrally placed 2-leaf semi-glazed doors.

NE ELEVATION: blind end of cottage and side of rear gable with wall continuing to form semi-enclosed garden area.

12 and 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows to front elevation; later replacement combination fixed pane windows with timber cases and opening top hoppers; later semi-glazed 2-leaf doors to rear gable. Pitched and piended slate roof with roll ridging to main cottage and overlapped slate angles on piended store. Painted cast-iron rainwater goods. Tall rubble stack with projecting rough neck cope and paired cans.

INTERIOR: room plan slightly altered and currently in use as estate office; originally plain cottage style interior refurbished to provide office accommodation.